The present invention concerns a vehicle with a working device, especially a chopping device, with a drive element, which is connected to an output shaft of the vehicle, whereby the transmission element can be moved on bearings and the working device can change position with respect to the vehicle.
Vehicles of this kind are known on the market and are in use in the most varied shapes and versions. Often towing vehicles, especially tractors and similar units, are used to pull appropriate working devices, such as, e.g., chopping devices and mulching and clearing machines, for the most various fields of application.
In this case, mulching machines, e.g., are used for many forestry purposes, surface clearing, and similar chopping, and also for chopping stumps or even cleared roots. Even mulching of hardwood is possible.
Since work is done using very high torques, control of the drive shaft is of critical importance for the process. Since positions for using such working devices often change according to the application, the corresponding angular drive-shaft relationships also change. This often leads, when the drive shaft is not controlled correctly, to undesirable oscillations when working devices of certain kinds are operated. Non-uniform rotary motions between output and drive can also arise through imprecise control of the drive shaft, so that in this case all components, such as universal shafts and especially their bearings, are subject to high loads.
The present invention is based on the task of improving the uniformity of the rotary motion of the drive shaft, so that oscillations and vibrations caused by the drive geometry of the vehicle are reduced and should be avoided in every operating position of the working device.
The fact that at least one transmission rod extends from the transmission element in the direction of the vehicle and is attached with a holding device so as to be movable about a joint and that the joint is maintained at approximately the same distance from the connection to the drive shaft or the shaft of the transmission rod during all movements of the working device leads to a solution to this task.
In the present invention, a drive rod is connected to a drive element mounted on the vehicle. Advantageously, a joint is provided at one end of the drive rod, which is connected to a holding device. The holding device is advantageously attached directly or indirectly to the vehicle. Here, a holding arm extends advantageously upward from the holding device, from which a swivel-mounted connecting element connects downward and produces a connection with the joint of the drive rod.
The drive element, in particular the drive rod, permits the connecting element to move only on an arc path.
Here, it has turned out to be especially advantageous to provide the joint specifically in the middle between the two connections of the output shaft and the shaft of the drive element. In particular, arranging the joint in the middle position of the joint as a connection point between connecting element and drive rod should form an angle, xc3xa1, between the drive shaft and the attachment of the driven shaft, corresponding approximately to the angle, xc3xa2, between the attachment and the drive shaft. In this way, a so-called W-bend is formed between the drive shaft of the vehicle and the shaft of the working device and a rotating drive shaft mounted on bearings in the middle. In every operating state of the working device, angle xc3xa1 is approximately equal to angle xc3xa2. In this case, a positive or even a negative W-bend is formed, with angles xc3xa1 and xc3xa2 always corresponding to each other.
In this way, it is always provided in operation that the drive shaft permits a very uniform rotary motion and thereby a transfer of the torque. Thus minimal oscillations and vibrations appear.